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19 ‎[1] **The Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying: **
‎[2] **This is the statute of the law that the Lord had commanded, saying: Speak to the children of Israel, and they shall take to you an unflawed red heifer, ** a heifer whose color is distinctly red and **in which there is no blemish, **and **upon which a yoke was not placed ** for any sort of work.
‎[3] **You shall give it to Elazar the priest, and he shall take it out of the camp, and one shall slaughter **it **before him. **Since the heifer is not an offering, its rites are performed outside the Temple.
‎[4] **Elazar the priest shall take from its blood with his finger, and sprinkle from its blood toward the front of the Tent of Meeting seven times. **
‎[5] **One shall burn the heifer before his eyes: Its skin, its flesh, and its blood, with its dung, he shall burn. **The heifer must be burned in its entirety.
‎[6] **The priest shall take cedarwood, hyssop, and a scarlet thread, **as in the purification rite of a leper, **and **he shall **cast **these items **into the burning of the heifer. **Consequently, the ashes will be comprised of a combination of the heifer, the wood of the pyre, and these three items.
‎[7] The individuals involved in this ritual are rendered impure:
**The priest shall wash his garments, and he shall bathe, **immerse, **his flesh in water, and then he may come to the camp. The priest shall be impure until the evening. **
‎[8] **He who burns it shall **also **wash his garments in water, and **
‎[9] **A pure man shall gather the ashes of the heifer, and place them outside the camp in a pure place, and it, **this collection of ashes, **shall be for the congregation of the children of Israel a keepsake, as a water of sprinkling [ *nidda *]; it, **the heifer, **is **a means of **purification. **In this context, *nidda *, which usually denotes a menstruating woman, means throwing. 1
‎[10] **He who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall **also **wash his garments, and he shall be impure until the evening; it shall be for the children of Israel, and to the stranger who resides among them for an eternal statute. **
‎[11] Until now, the Torah described the rite of the heifer and the preparation of its ashes. Now, it will describe the use of these ashes:
**One who touches the corpse of any person shall be impure seven days. **
‎[12] **He shall purify himself with it, **the mixture of water and ashes, **on the third day and on the seventh day **of his impurity, and then **he shall be pure; however, if he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he shall not be pure **even after seven days have elapsed.
‎[13] The potential consequences of not purifying oneself with the ashes of the heifer are severe:
**Anyone who touches a corpse of a person who has died and does not purify himself **and enters the Tabernacle **has defiled the Tabernacle of the Lord; that person shall be excised from Israel because the water of sprinkling was not sprinkled upon him; he shall be impure; his impurity is still upon him. **
‎[14] Contrary to what might have been expected, this passage began with a description of the process by which one purifies oneself with the red heifer. The Torah describes at this point how one enters into a state of ritual impurity in the first place:
**This is the law: When a man dies in a tent, **or in any roofed structure, **anyone who comes into the tent **while the corpse is there, **and anything that is in the tent **while the corpse is there, **shall be impure seven days. **This is known as impurity imparted by a tent, meaning that the impurity due to the corpse spreads throughout the entire space under the roof covering the corpse. Therefore, one may be rendered impure even without touching or carrying the corpse.
‎[15] **Any open vessel **in the tent **that does not have a tight-fitting lid upon it is impure. **
‎[16] **Anyone who will touch in the open field, **in an unroofed area, **one slain with a sword, or one who died **through other means, **or a bone of a man, or a grave **of a person, **shall be impure seven days. **In cases where the source of impurity is not situated under a roof, impurity is imparted through physical contact.
‎[17] **They shall take for the impure from the ashes of the burning of the purification, **the ashes of the heifer, **and he shall place springwater upon it in a vessel. **
‎[18] **A pure person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, **which is made of leather or flax, 2 **and on all the vessels, and on the people who were there, and on one who touched the bone, or the slain, or the dead, or the grave. **
‎[19] **The pure shall sprinkle upon the impure on the third day and on the seventh day and he shall purify him on the seventh day; he, **the one undergoing purification, **shall **then **wash his garments, and bathe in water, and be pure in the evening. **
‎[20] **A man who is impure, and does not purify himself, **and nevertheless enters the Temple or eats from sacrificial items, **that person shall be excised from the midst of the assembly, because he has rendered the Sanctuary of the Lord impure; the water of sprinkling has not been sprinkled on him; he is impure. **Although it is not a sin to be impure, an impure individual is prohibited from entering the Temple or consuming sacrificial food.
‎[21] **It shall be an eternal statute for them; he who sprinkles the water of sprinkling shall wash his garments, **as he is rendered impure, **and he who touches the water of sprinkling shall **also **be impure until the evening. **This water has great powers of purification; nevertheless, if a person who does not require purification through this water comes into contact with it, that person is rendered impure by the water. However, the degree of impurity is not as severe as the impurity imparted by a corpse. One does not require sprinkling on the third and seventh days, but merely immersion in a ritual bath and the arrival of nightfall.
‎[22] **Anything that the impure person shall touch shall be impure; and the person who touches **the impure individual **shall **himself **be impure until the evening. **
Version: The Steinsaltz Tanakh - English
Source: https://korenpub.com/collections/the-steinsaltz-tanakh/products/steinsaltz-tanakh
License: Copyright: Steinsaltz Center